Mayor Gavin Newsom has championed the idea at least as far back in 2008, when he introduced legislation “that will prohibit the use of the outdated, environmentally costly T-12 lightbulb, and to transition to the T-8 bulb,” according to a Mayor’s Office press release at the time. “The T-8 lighting tubes are up to 40% more energy efficient, and have improved color, less heat, and less noise. The value of replacing the T-12 tubes is calculated that if all the remaining older fluorescent lights in the city were replaced with this new T-8 lighting technology, it would save enough energy to power 7,200 local residences, reduce 16,500 tons of CO2, and is the equivalent of taking over 3,000 automobiles off the streets.”

Newsom’s legislation apparently stalled, and then Supervisor Bevan Dufty later introduced similar legislation, which is what the supervisors will vote on.

Blumenfeld said the legislation, which the Department of Environment brought to Dufty for introduction, would “ban T-12 light bulbs, the least efficient compact linear fluorescent light bulbs.”

The official schedule of next week’s meeting are not yet released and subject to change.